


Catnaps

by xxtempestaxx



Category: Free!
Genre: Apartment AU, Cats, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, au where they don't know each other, they're in university
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 23:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3506177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxtempestaxx/pseuds/xxtempestaxx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru falls asleep wondering what to paint and wakes up with a cat practically on his face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catnaps

 

Haru slowly toweled his hair as he stepped out of his bathroom into the silent living room. The raven usually loved this sort of calm and quiet. At least he thought he did. Did he not he always crave this sort of silence?

 

But... somehow, it was too quiet.

 

The youth walked across his living room, leaving his towel hung around his neck, and threw open his balcony doors. The weather was beautiful outside. The sun was shining brightly and only a few fluffy white clouds floated lazily in the boundless blue sky. Despite it still being spring, the temperature was warm enough for Haru to be comfortable in his cotton t-shirt and shorts. He could hear the laundry he had put out earlier in the morning to dry flapping gently in the breeze. There was the distant sound of twittering birds and leaves rustling in the wind. He heard some children shriek in laughter.

 

Now there was some sound. This should have been better. It was the strange stillness that had unnerved him wasn’t it? But, somehow it wasn’t enough…

 

The sound of rustling leaves was too distant. The song of these birds was sweet, but he missed the loud calls of the seagulls. He missed the sound of happy singing from the old woman who lived further down the hill from his house and always watered her plants around this time. He missed the sound of waves…

 

Yeah, that was what it was. That’s all it was. He didn’t miss Nagisa’s obnoxiously loud cackling or Rei’s indignant screeches. Those were the sounds he was always trying to get rid off. Besides, he had only talked to them on Skype two weeks ago.

 

_“Haru-chan we’re leaving for our 3-week trip tomorrow! I’m so excited! We’ll bring back and send you the best souvenirs possible and lots of pictures! But, I wish we could talk to you sometime in between… Haru-chan will be so lonely without our weekend calls Rei-chan!”_

_“No, I won’t.”_

_“Nonsense! You still haven’t even made any new friends at your university yet! All you will have is grumpy Rin to call you, and all you two do lately is fight! You really need to talk to more people, make more friends, we worry about you Haru-chan!”_

_“I don’t need anymore friends to annoy me.”_

_“No, Nagisa is right, you know Haruka-senpai. I mean, you don’t necessarily have to make more friends, but if you would at least hold a conversation with someone sometimes. You don’t talk to anyone! I know it’s hard for you to initiate conversations, but at least respond to the people who talk to you! I bet you haven’t even tried holding a conversation with your other teammates on the swim team yet, have you?”_

_“Hmpf. I talked to them once.”_

_“The introduction doesn’t count Haru-chan!”_

_“Whatever. Talking is annoying.”_

And it really was. Unlike what Nagisa and Rei implied, he did respond to people when he first started university. Well, he answered their questions at least. _“Hello, how do you do?”_ “Fine.” _“Isn’t the weather awful today?”_ “Yeah, all of winter is awful. The water is to cold to swim in outside.” _“What are you studying?”_ “Visual Arts.” But, somehow the conversation never moved beyond pleasantries, and eventually he got tired of answering the same questions over and over again and simply stopped responding altogether.

 

With a soft huff, Haru turned back into the room and plopped down on his sofa, leaning his head back on the headrest. He should probably have been starting his art project which was due in a week, but he couldn’t find any motivation to do so. Somehow he was tired.

 

He loved drawing and painting, but it was just one deadline after the other. He liked drawing when he wanted, without the pressure of due dates, and loved painting according to whatever theme he wanted, not one assigned to him, and he was not all that interested in sculpture. Was he right in choosing to do this as a major? Did he even want to do this as a career? What if all the study and work pressure ruined his love for arts? Wasn’t that why he had chosen against pursuing swimming professionally? But, he couldn’t imagine himself studying something he had absolutely no interest in. If he couldn’t find the motivation to keep up with what he loved, how would he ever find the motivation to do something he didn’t?

 

Haru jolted up slightly as his cell phone started ringing from the top of the cabinet a few feet away. He couldn’t see its screen from here, but it was probably Rin trying, once again, to convince him to sign up for the inter-college swimming competition. He thought he had made it clear that he had only joined the swim-team to take advantage of their beautiful swimming facilities and join the occasional practice relay. He had no interest in being scouted to become an Olympic swimmer. Or perhaps it was his parents calling, asking how college was going, if he made any new friends, etc.

 

He decided to ignore the phone. Eventually it would have to stop ringing.

 

And eventually it did. He missed his hometown. He missed his home. He missed Nagisa, Rei, Kou and maybe slightly the less annoying Rin. Or maybe he really was just tired. Maybe he should take a nap.

 

Yeah, he would take a short nap before taking down his laundry and then maybe head out for his evening swim a little earlier than usual. With that decided the raven lay down on his sofa and slowly drifted off to sleep as the gentle breeze from the still open balcony door continued to ruffle his hair.

 

* * *

 

Haru was having a pleasant his dream. One he really didn’t feel like waking up from and tried to desperately grasp at as it slowly slipped away. He didn’t want to let go of the sight of the vast blue ocean or the sound of waves crashing against the shore quite yet.

 

“Meow.”

 

Yeah, he had missed the sound of the cats as well. The ones from the shrine near his house, that sometimes wandered near the beach, but always kept at a safe distance from the water. The cats that also visited his backyard where he left food out for them and sometimes let him pet them.

 

“Meow!”

 

This “meow” had been rather loud though and seemed to be drowning out all the other sounds in his dreams. He felt a slight weight on his chest as well, as the sound of the ocean disappeared. One that slowly moved up his chest and approached his face. As his mind slowly cleared up from sleep, he felt something light and soft land on his cheek.

 

As Haru opened his eyes he found himself staring into a small pair of golden eyes. He blinked slowly.

 

“Meow.”

 

The cat standing on his chest, practically on his face, said once again, as if in greeting, as it removed its paw from his cheek. He continued staring at the being that had elected to sit down on his chest and stare right back. He made sure to blink slowly every once in a while. The cat, he noticed, had one of its legs wrapped neatly in a white bandage (the one it had kept of his face) and a short scar running diagonally across its forehead. Some of the light brown fur seemed to be missing as well off the tip of its right ear, leaving its pink skin bare at the spot. It didn’t look like a kitten, but the white and sand brown cat was rather small and looked rather underfed.

 

He glanced down at its neck, but there was no collar. It couldn’t possibly have been a stray though as Haru’s apartment was on the 5th floor of the building. It was not a stray at that moment at the very least. Besides, it was a little too well groomed for that despite the seemingly rough life it had led. Where had it come from them? He turned his head towards the open balcony doors as he felt his hair rustle in the wind while the cat continued sitting patiently on his chest, flicking its tail occasionally and staring at him as if waiting for him to connect the dots.

 

 _Ah! It must be one of the neighbours’ cat._ Haru thought to himself lazily.

 

As if on cue he heard a loud thud and a yell of pain from the other side of his wall. Both the cat and the youth calmly glanced in the direction of the sound. The cats ears flicked up, but relaxed once again soon after as it let out another meow with a swish of its tail. It glanced towards the wall, then back at Haru, then back at the wall before getting up as it looked back at Haru.

 

“Is that your owner?” the raven asked.

 

“Meow.” the cat said in response.

 

The two heard the sound of more things falling down on the other side of the wall.

 

“Where did that cat go now?” he heard a voice faintly exclaim from beyond the wall.

 

“He must be searching for you. I guess I better take you back before he injures himself if he hasn’t already. Didn’t he move in 2 weeks ago? That should have been more than enough time to unpack and not have things cluttering his apartment.” Haru told the cat with a small frown as he remembered the brunette with the too bright a smile who greeted him a couple of weeks before. He couldn’t quite remember the boy’s name though.

 

He slowly raised his arms to both sides of the cat to see if it would let him lift it up. When the cat did nothing but lazily swish its tail again, he picked it up and sat up. He moved the cat to one arm as he stood up and walked over to the cabinet to pick up his keys. He then headed out his front door putting on slippers on his way out. As he locked his door he heard another thud from the neighbouring apartment and sighed.

 

“Kota! Where could that cat have gone! He didn’t go out in the balcony did he?” he heard a worried voice call out from the other side of the door he was approaching. “Kazu, have you seen Kota?”

 

“Kota. Is that your name?” Haru asked the cat as he rang the door bell.

 

“Meow!” the cat said in response.

 

“Coming!” he heard the same voice call out, followed by another thud and another cry of pain.

 

“Your owner sounds pretty clumsy” the raven told the cat in a bored voice.

 

“Meow.”

 

“Kota? Is that you Kota?!” the voice exclaimed as the door quickly opened to a frantic brunette. On the other side of the door stood a tall, well-built youth with messy brown hair and worried green eyes.

 

“Kota! It is you! Thank god! Thank you so much! Nanase-san right? I was so worried he fell of the balcony! I can’t believe I left the balcony door open without the fence! Where did you find him? On your balcony?” said the brunette hurriedly.

 

“On my face” Haru responded in a bored tone with a bored expression as he pet the cat still in his arms.

 

“Huh?” the other wore a confused expression as he finally seemed to breathe again.

 

“I woke up to him on top of me. He must have got in from the balcony though, since mine was open too. He doesn’t seem too scared of humans. Is he not a former stray?” Haru said as he narrowed his eyes. The brunette looked nice enough but if he was underfeeding his pet cat… The injuries looked like they came from fights with other cats, but the cat looked unacceptably malnourished for a house pet.

 

“Oh, Kota…” the other said with a sigh as he gave the cat a disapproving look.

 

“Meow.”

 

“I’m sorry! It must have been quite a shock to wake up to an unknown cat on your chest in your own apartment! Yes, he was a stray. I picked him up only a few days ago actually. Found him all clawed up, limping and bleeding at the edge of an alley way.” the brunette continued with a sad look on his face. Haru softened his expression at this.

 

“He’s strangely friendly towards humans for a stray though isn’t he? Well not everyone, actually he’s quite selective. He took one sniff at the landlord, turned and walked right out of the room. Didn’t you Kota?” the boy said with a laugh as he reached over to scratch behind the cat’s ear.

 

“But he’s not scared of humans at least. Actually he doesn’t seem to be scared of anything! He tried to pick a fight with Kazu who is almost twice his size when he first met him! I’m so glad Kazu isn’t easily provoked! And Kota always seems to do as he pleases. I can’t believe he climbed over to your balcony. Your leg is still injured Kota! That was so dangerous!” he scolded the cat.

 

“Meow!”

 

“Oh! I’ve been rambling on and on while you have been standing in the corridor, outside my door the whole time! How rude of me! Would like to come in for some tea or coffee? My mom just sent me some sweets as well. Here, let me get Kota.” the brunette said as he reached his arms out for the cat still cradled in Haru’s arms. As the raven moved his own arms forward the cat turned its head up to look at him, look at its owner gently smiling at him, and then turned down its head to lick at Haru’s hand before jumping into its owner’s arms. It licked the brunette’s nose as he moved to get a better hold of the cat which caused the green-eyed youth to laugh lightly.

 

“I’m fine. There’s no need to trouble yourself.” Haru said in response to the earlier question.

 

“No, no! It’s no trouble at all! Please! I insist! I want to apologize for all the trouble Kota has caused you and I can’t think of anything else. My mom’s sweets are really delicious. Oh! Unless you’re busy with something? If that’s so, you can drop by some other time.”

 

Haru hesitated. The brunette seemed to talk a lot, but his voice wasn’t quite as annoying as Nagisa’s. And he didn’t seem to require much input from Haru to happily carry on a conversation. Maybe spending some more time with him wouldn’t be quite as tiring as spending time with people usually was. He could stay until it was the usual time for his evening swim he supposed. It really had been a long time since he had talked to anyone and the brunette’s smile was so warm… Plus maybe he’d get to pet Kota some more and didn’t the other say something about some other pet named Kazu too?

 

“What’s your name?” he asked, because he hadn’t really being paying attention when the other had introduced himself two weeks ago.

 

“Oh, right! It’s no surprise you wouldn’t remember since we only talked once and that was over a week ago! My name is Tachibana Makoto. Your Nanase Haruka right? I’m pretty good with names, that’s why I remember.” the other rambled on as he rubbed the back of his neck with the hand that wasn’t wrapped around his cat.

 

“Yeah. I’ll stay till it’s time for my swim” the raven finally told the other.

 

The brunette’s whole face lit up into a bright smile as he stepped aside to let the raven in.

 

“Then, welcome Nanase-san! I’m sorry it’s such a mess, I still haven’t finished unpacking everything even though I know I should have by now. So, please be sure to watch your step.”

 

“Haru.”

 

“Sorry?”

 

“You can call me Haru.”

 

“Oh! Then, Haru, please call me Makoto as well!”

 

As Haru stepped in, he saw another cat peaking at them from behind a wall.

 

“Meow.”

 

“Look Kazu, here’s Kota! It seems he went to visit Haru, our next door neighbour” Makoto said as he placed the cat in his arms down on the floor after closing his front door.

 

Kazu timidly brought out one of his paw from behind the wall. As Kota approached him at a lazy pace, the cat stepped out fully from behind the wall and took a few cautious steps forward before bumping it’s nose against the smaller cat’s one.

 

“Unlike Kota, Kazu is very shy around strangers. But, he’s a lot more affectionate once he warms up to you.” the brunette explained.

 

Kazu was a ginger cat with pale green eyes and injury and scar free. This cat was perhaps only slightly larger than average, but looked much bigger standing next to the smaller cat, though saying he was twice the size of the other was a bit of an exaggeration. As the two cats approached Haru, Kota in the lead, the raven bent down and held out his hand. Cautiously, the ginger one stepped up to him, as the other moved to the side, and brought his nose to the raven’s fingers. Once the cat was done sniffing him, Haru slowly moved his hand to scratch behind its ear.

 

“Did you rescue this one too?” Haru asked.

 

“Ha ha, not really. Kazu was simply one of the many kittens my neighbour’s cat gave birth to. When I visited them he immediately took to me for some reason and started following me everywhere. He would sometimes even sneak into our house and find me! So, eventually I just decided to adopt him. When, I moved out of the family house, of course I had to bring him along as well.”

 

“Meow!” the cat said as he pushed his head into Haru’s hand demanding to be pet some more as Haru had paused to listen to Makoto.

 

“He already likes you! That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen him take to anyone!” the brunette exclaimed happily, his eyes twinkling.

 

“Oh, right! You can take a seat on the sofa and make yourself at home. The cats will follow you. I’ll get out the sweets and tea/coffee out. What would you like, Haru? Tea? Coffee?”

 

“Water.” said Haru as he stood up.

 

“Ok,” responded Makoto as he turned towards the kitchen, without pestering Haru about if he was really sure he didn’t want tea or coffee or even pausing, to the raven’s surprise.

 

“Meow.”

 

Haru looked down to see Kazu rubbing himself against his legs.

 

The raven reached down to scratch at the ginger cat’s head before leaving the hallway to head towards the living room.

 

* * *

 

“Meow, meow! Meow, meow!”

 

The next day, Haru woke up from an afternoon nap to a heavy weight and little feet pattering about on his chest. He opened his eyes to two pairs of eyes right above his face. Kota approached his small head first to push his nose to Haru’s, then moved back to let Kazu move forward to do the same. However, Kazu then proceeded to lick the tip of Haru’s nose.

 

As the good weather had continued, Haru had once again left his balcony door open. And while lying down, trying to think of what to paint, he supposed, he had dozed off.

 

“You’re heavy” he told the cats after blinking a few times up at them. Both the cats jumped off of him and onto the floor as he sat up and turned to slide his legs down. He then reached down to pet them making them purr happily.

 

“Kota! Kazu! Where are you?” Haru heard a voice faintly calling out from across the wall. “Oh, no! Did they get into the balcony and crossover again? How did they even open the pet fence!” the voice exclaimed as it moved towards the balcony and grew louder since the door was open.

 

“Haru, are my cats over at your place?” he heard Makoto call out.

 

“Yeah, they’re here. I’ll bring them over.”

 

Haru bent down to pick the two cats up, but while Kazu let himself easily be picked up, Kota jumped out of the way playfully.

 

“Kota, we have to get you to back to Makoto’s” he said with a sigh as he reached out to try and pick up the smaller cat again. But, the frisky little thing simply jumped out of his way again. “Kota…”

 

The raven chased Kota around for a few more minutes with an arm still full of cat, before finally managing to catch him. The golden-eyed cat squirmed around a bit before finally settling down as Haru headed for his keys. The youth moved the cats temporarily to one arm to lock his door before heading to Makoto’s already open door.

 

“I’m so sorry, Haru!” the green-eyed boy exclaimed as soon as Haru reached him, moving his arms forward to pick Kazu out of the raven’s arms. “I left the balcony door open again since the weather is still so nice outside, but I made sure to put up the fence. I have no idea how they managed to open it! Did you wake up with them on your chest again? And the both of them this time! Kazu must have followed Kota out. It must have been so uncomfortable waking to both of them on you. Were they too heavy? They didn’t-”

 

“It’s fine.” Haru cut off Makoto’s frantic questioning.

 

“I really am sorry, Haru.”

 

“I said, it’s fine. It was not that much of a bother.” he said looking down at the smaller cat still in his arms.

 

“Oh, ok then.” Makoto gave in finally as a soft smile finally spread across the brunette’s face and lit up his eyes.

 

The gentle smile suited him a lot better than the apologetic expression he previously wore in Haru’s opinion.

 

“Umm,” the green-eyed youth fidgeted nervously reaching down to scratch at his cat’s head. “Would you like to come in and stay until its time for your evening swim again, Haru? I can give you water. I mean of course I could give you water, what am I saying! But, well I still have some of those sweets from yesterday left. And I really should do something to apologize for all the trouble my cats caused again. And you seemed to quite like those sweets. Specially the ones shaped like that bird mascot! So… Actually, I just really enjoyed talking to you yesterday Haru, so I would really like to spend some more time with you…” Makoto finished off smiling softly at the raven.

 

Haru’s eyes widened at that. It was the first time anyone had ever told him that they liked talking to him. Not that it was unexpected really. He knew he was a terrible conversationalist. He never said much, didn’t even feel the need to. And even when he did say something, it was usually short and to the point or incredibly cryptic. But, here was Makoto, saying he actually liked talking to Haru.

 

“Ok.” Haru replied.

 

“Ok?”

 

“I’ll stay.”

 

Makoto’s smile brightened and grew to spread all across his face at Haru’s answer.

 

“Come on, in then! Could you continue holding Kota till I shut the door? I don’t want him running of again to who knows where. I shut the balcony door as well and opened the windows instead. Really he’s so reckless! His leg hasn’t even fully healed yet!” the brunette rambled as he stepped aside to let the raven in.

 

Makoto talked a lot, Haru thought to himself. He didn’t really mind though. He liked listening to Makoto.

 

* * *

 

“Haru-chaaaaan! Did you miss us?~ I bet you missed us lots! We missed talking to you too! But, don’t worry! We got you lots of fun souvenirs!~ I’m packaging them to mail them to you as we speak! Have you talked to Rin-chan yet, or are you two still fighting?” a voice chattered on excitedly from his laptop on the kitchen counter as he flipped the fish on his grill over.

 

“I talked to him,” he said with a sigh. “We’ve stopped fighting. For now, at least. I told him I’ll only go see him compete if he stops pestering me about joining the competition”

 

“Finally!” Nagisa shouted.

 

“That’s great!” Rei joined in. “Say, Haruka-senpai, have you tried having a conversation with anyone yet? Even just a small one? With the swim team members?”

 

Unbeknownst to his two juniors, a small smile had appeared on Haru’s face.

 

“I haven’t had any conversations with anyone on the swim team.”

 

“Haru-chan!” “Haruka-senpai!” the two exclaimed in protest.

 

_Ding Dong._

 

“Oh. Makoto, must be here.” Haru said as he heard the bell. He turned the gas knob to low and washed his hands before wiping them on a small towel hanging from his oven door.

 

“Makoto? Who’s Makoto?” asked Nagisa.

 

“My neighbour. He’s going to be staying for lunch so I’m ending the call now.”

 

“For lunch? How come he’s staying for lunch? Haru-chan, did you talk to your neighbour? Did you become friends with your neighbour? HARU!”

 

“Haruka-senpai! We’re so proud of you! Not only did you talk to someone, you even made a friend! Why didn’t you tell us?”

 

“What’s he like? Come on, you have to tell us! You can’t just end the call here! You have to let us meet him! HARU-CHANNNN!~”

 

“No. I’m ending the call. Bye.”

 

Ignoring his friends’ protests he ended the call and shut the laptop before heading for the front door where he could here the sound of scratching and long drawn out meows coming from. The cats could probably smell the mackerel he was cooking.

 

“Kota! Stop scratching at Haru’s door! He doesn’t need any claw marks decorating it!”

 

* * *

 

Haru stepped back from his easel to admire his newly finished painting. He had just finished putting the final touches to his art project. It definitely was not one of his masterpieces in his opinion, but it was much better than anything he had produced in the last couple of months.

 

After talking to his professor and explaining how he had been in a slump, but was finally recovering from it, he had managed to get an extension on the project. And he really did feel much better. He still missed the ocean and the sounds around his house. But, he thought he could wait till the vacations to return to his hometown, he didn’t miss it quite as desperately. Besides, Makoto was always ready to listen to him talk about the beauty of the ocean and spent way too much time admiring his paintings of it. His life was also no longer quite as catless. And with how much Makoto talked it was no longer too quiet either around him. He could visit Iwatobi during the holidays. Maybe Makoto would like to visit too?

 

He still was not sure if deciding to major in visual arts was the right choice. But, maybe it was not the wrong one either. He thought he would try this out for a bit longer now that he was getting his inspiration back. The program was a little too restrictive, and he sometimes had to study things he knew he was most definitely not going to pursue. But, he also learnt some new interesting techniques, some of the lectures were sort of interesting and some of the projects were engaging. Besides, once he graduated he would be free to take his art in the direction he wanted. Maybe not completely free, but certainly not as restricted. And, if it really did not work out he could always slowly try something new on the side. He was not trapped.

 

It somehow had gotten a little easier to breathe even when not in water, even when outside of his safe haven.

 

But, for now, he really needed some rest. He had been up all night finishing up his painting, and now that he was finally done he was ready to collapse asleep. It was a good thing it was still the weekend! He would take a bath later, after a really quick nap. Washing his tools, hands, arms and face and taking of his apron was good enough for the time being.

 

The apartment had really gotten hot! Or maybe it was just that he had worn himself out? It was a bit cloudy, but the weather didn’t look too bad outside, so he decided to open the balcony doors before collapsing onto his sofa. He fell asleep almost as soon as his head landed on the pillow he had brought out.

 

 

 

 

He woke up with a heavy weight right on the middle of his chest. The weight was heavy enough to make it even somewhat hard to breathe. Thankfully it wasn’t moving around this time.

 

Haru sighed as he opened his eyes and lifted his head slightly to look down at his chest. Sleeping on top of him, were Kota and Kazu with a tiny black kitten nestled between the two of them.

 

“There seem to be more of you everytime.” he muttered with a small frown.

 

“Kazu! Kota! Hime!” he heard Makoto calling faintly from across his wall.


End file.
